The Builds

Build 2: This build doesn't have Tear of the Goddess as build one, however this has more surviability in it. It's a kind of mix between build one and three. You might have some mana problems here if you find yourself in a few fights rapidly (after each other).

Build 3: Build three focuses more on surviability, a bit more of passive playing style. It's probably the best to new Brand players, as you have a much better surviability and sustain in lane. Not only might it be best for new Brand players, but it might be the best over all. That's up to you to decide.

For maximum damage output, choose build one.
For some good surviability and still good damage, choose build three.
If you want a mix between the two, build two is for you.

Why: Greater Mark of Magic Penetration is for the Magic Penetration. This is very basic for every caster. These, along with Sorcerer's Shoes will grant you around 28-29 Magic Penetration. Every champion starts out with around 30 Magic Resist, some a little more like 31. Therefore, I have thrown in some Greater Glyph of Magic Penetration just to get that over 30, making you actually do the actual skill damage.
The Greater Seal of Replenishment runes are great to have, due to that you will be using spells to harass. Therefore you'll need mana over a longer time, where the mana regen runes are shining.
For the rest of the runes, there's just basic Ability Power. If you feel like you need more mana regen for example, feel free to swap out some of them.

Why: For this, there's a lot equal to build one. However instead of passing that 30 Magic Penetration mark, leaving your foes with zero Magic Resistance, we'll put in AP instead. Some flat Ability Power. These are great to start out with. But yes, Greater Mark of Magic Penetration are used for Magic Penetration along with Sorcerer's Shoes which will result in 28-29. Instead of going into more Magic Penetration now, we'll have 9x Greater Glyph of Ability Power to grant us a small boost in the start instead. Greater Seal of Replenishment is as already stated in build one, great to have as you will be harassing over a longer time, making mana regen just terrific to have. Greater Quintessence of Ability Power is a sweet Ability Power boost in the start, dramatically increasing our starting damage.

Isn't mana per 5 seconds per level better?
Ok, so the "by-level" mp5 seals passes the effects of the flat ones at the level of 7. Within level 7, you should have aquired Tear of the Goddess already. Therefore flat ones are the ones you need to keep your mana up earlier on. For build #2 you can feel free to get them, but still, Brand shouldn't spam his skills too much and shouldn't have any mana troubles if he's played right with flat mp5 runes. If you have mana troubles midgame whatsoever, feel free to take them. But honestly, 9x mp5 flat gives 3.69 mp5, and the flat ones gives only around 10 at level 18. This isn't much, and I think that boost isn't even needed when you start leveling up. Brand isn't the one with mana problems except if you spam your spells early game.

Remember that Magic Penetration runes helps your passive. If you can get it to zero, your passive will do full damage. Yes, 8% of their hp in addition to the spell damage is now gone. How awesome...

If you have any questions regarding this part, please look in the FAQ first. If you can't find the answer to your question there, leave a comment and I will on daily basis (well every two days anyway) check this guide for comments to try to help you out as best as I can.

Masteries

As for the masteries, it's pretty much basic caster build. All of those caster masteries really varies from user to user, and so does it here. I understand that yourself you like to put a few points in the Utility Mastery instead of e.g. maxing Expanded Mind , but in Brand's case I think that it's best to have a good amount of mana combined with your later-on Archangel's Staff.

Masteries

1/5

3/1

4/1

1/1

3/5

1/1

4/1

1/5

3/1

1/1

3/5

1/5

3/1

1/1

There you basically have a draft of it. So, Archmage's Savvy is for the Ability Power boost, of course. Any caster would need this... The one point in Deadliness is just to have it somewhere, to get up to Archaic Knowledge , which is one of the most important masteries here. It gives you a 15% Magic Penetration. It won't do much with your runes and Sorcerer's Shoes early on, but it can help a lot combined with Void Staff late game, to tear down any tank. Brilliant.
I don't feel like wasting time in explaining the rest of the points, which is pretty self-explanatory after all. Of course there might be a few points that you'd like to have somewhere else - and no one tells you not to do that. At least I don't.Optional Masteries
It's up to you, and here is some more tips.
- Quickness is a good boost for surviability, and it'll help you to escape or chase. However in my selection, I've focused on gaining as much mana and mana regen as possible, to make you not run out of mana. However, it's a good choice too.
- Resistance and Hardiness could be a good choice if you feel yourself ganked often.

If you have any questions regarding this part, please look in the FAQ first. If you can't find the answer to your question there, leave a comment and I will on daily basis (well every two days anyway) check this guide for comments to try to help you out as best as I can.

Skill Sequence

Ability Sequence

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

Sear is used for stunning. Late game it can also be used for a good source of damage, because it's basically what does the most damage out your spells if the target isn't ablaze already. However, a stun is just awesome to land your Pillar of Flame for sure. Many people will max Sear last because they only need the stun. Well, a little damage boost ain't too bad. Therefore I won't leave it behind. In this Brand's arsenal, no one will be left behind.Only enemies - in ashes.

As you can see, Pillar of Flame needs to be maxed. It's the spell you probably will do the most damage with, as it gets a 25% boost if the target is ablaze. This means that it shouldn't really be used as a combo-opener, but can. This is really your bread and butter skill, it's highly needed for both harassing and farming. If you manage to put this skill in a middle of someone, they can't get out if they haven't; Any teleport or dashing skill to move faster; Mobility Boots; Five phantom dancers; A Janna on YOUR team uses Monsoon on them. It's impossible. Therefore it's important that you aim this right. After some practise it goes really easy - and after a little you'll learn to predict where your enemies will go, and they will feel the heat from the earth beneath them so bad that they won't take another move like that except if they're idiots. But yes, you will definitely meet a lot of idiots.

Conflagration is an interesting spell. It's the one that provides the least damage of all your spells. Yes, I'll explain this later. Anyway, it spreads. A great farming combo, this. Pillar of Flame followed by Conflagration will tear down a nice group of mobs, at least the ranged ones. Maybe not early game, but mid-game and out for sure. It's also a good spell for starting your combo with a stun. Probably the combo doing the most damage tbh.

Now, your ultimate, Pyroclasm. What an AWESOME name. Anyway, picture the scene: There's you there with your spells on cd, and two enemies with maybe one 50% hp and the other 35%. You have played well and are a bit fed, they're not - they're normal. You throw your Pyroclasm (love saying that name) at the one with 50% hp. It bounces five times, and up to three times on the same target. This makes it: 50%-guy, 35%-guy, 50%, 35%, 50% - leaving both to 0%. Lets say you were level 11 and they were around 9. This means that the guy with 50% hp needs over 750hp in addition to 8% of this maximum hp. Around 800, say. Remember that if you have the runes of my cheat sheet one, you will deal even more due to the fact that their Magic Resistance is zero. As I said earlier, even your passive will be better. So actually, this will be maybe 850 damage. Not to mention that this is calculated without your Ability Power. This will be a good amount over 1000 in addition to that Pyroclasm renews your Blaze several times making it EVEN more damage - and I don't think someone has 2000 hp yet in already level 9. It's very unlikely except if they rushed Warmog's Armor or something. They shouldn't actually have got that yet if they aren't fed...
But yes, the point of this is that if you use your ultimate right, it can do tons of damage. Of course they can run apart, but it isn't too easy when they're ablaze and the missile speed is quite fast.

Note that this damage also varies a lot on how fed your are, and which items you built, of course. It isn't 100% accurate, but it can give you an overview.

- Rabadon's Deathcap
An absolutely necessary item. It gives a damn + 30 % boost to your Ability Power. Such a great boost. Any caster should have this item, and Brand is no exception.

- Archangel's Staff
This is the most rewarding Ability Power rewarding item in the game. It builds from the Tear of Goddess that we got earlier on. A caster like Brand relies on much Ability Power, therefore stacking one or multiple of these is great.

- Void Staff
A nice boost of Magic Penetration to get late game, to tear down those Magic Resistance stacking tanks easier. Along with 15% from masteries, it's a good boost. Also gives some Ability Power.

- Elixir of Brilliance
Be sure to get those while playing, whenever you are in shop and have 250 spare gold. It gives a good boost for four minutes. Make sure that if you have a spot, don't activate it before you're on the battlefield for the maximum length and use of it.

You probably noticed that it's missing two final items. Those are up to you to choose. Look below for some suggestions, in the "optional items" section.I actually recommend getting Void Staff after at least one of your optional items, maybe even as the last one. Tanks won't get a very high Magic Resistance until late-game, as most tend to stack up Armor first.

- Rabadon's Deathcap
An absolutely necessary item. It gives a damn + 30 % boost to your Ability Power. Such a great boost. Any caster should have this item, and Brand is no exception.

- Rylai's Crystal Scepter
For good surviability mid-/late-game, Ability Power and a slow to your spells. Explained better in the section below: "Optional items section"

- Morello's Evil Tome
Has a good Ability Power boost, along with some mana regen. It also gives a bunch of Cooldown Reduction - whole 20%! It'll drastically reduce the cooldown of your Pyroclasm.

- Void Staff
A nice boost of Magic Penetration to get late game, to tear down those Magic Resistance stacking tanks easier. Along with 15% from masteries, it's a good boost. Also gives some Ability Power. But yeah, needs to be gotten late game for a good effect really.

The last item is up to you to decide. See the bellow for suggestions and tips.

- Catalyst the Protector has a good boost for Health and Mana, and will in addition help you very much to sustain in lane with its passive. It's later going to be evolved to another item aswell.

- Fiendish Codex is a great item with Ability Power, Mana Regeneration and Cooldown Reduction. The main reason we get this so early is its Mana Regeneration. Also this item will become a better one later on aswell.

- Sorcerer's Shoes is a must for any caster. It's needed, and along with your Magic Penetration runes it'll bring the enemy close to zero.

- Rabadon's Deathcap is another must for any caster. +30%!?!?!? Lolwut. So basically, it's a great item, which increases your damage A-LOT!

- Rod of Ages will help you with both surviability and a decent amount of Ability Power. Your Catalyst the Protector will become this. It's good to get it mid-game due to that after 10 minutes its passive is in fully effect.

- Rylai's Crystal Scepter gives you a damn +500 Health bonus! How terrific! In addition it gives Ability Power and a SLOW to your spells. So basically you have both a stun and slow now. Sweet.

- Void Staff should be bought when the enemy start stacking up Magic Resistance, usually late-mid- or late game. 40% Magic Penetration and 70 Ability Power. Great.

- Archangel's Staff
Do you like power!?!? If you want to maximize your damage output and get the most damage probably possible with Brand, ever* I think, build another two of these. Get them to 1000 mana, and it's gold.* I don't know if it's the most damage, but I think so. Of course 1 Rabadon and 5 Archangels are the most AP, but hey, you need some MP too.

- Morello's Evil Tome
This is a very interesting item. I mean, it gives a huge Cooldown Reduction, Ability Power AND Mana Regeneration. How awesome. It might be good to get this earlier on though, and be the last item to sell before you get your final item. The mana regen supplised from this ain't to much use late game, and there are stronger Ability Power items. It also gives no surviability whatsoever.

- Rylai's Crystal Scepter
+500 HP is a giant boost to your surviability, and can be put to good use as you are focused a lot of times. It won't help you too much, but of course it will help you good. Along with an Ability Power boost of 80 and a slow to your spells it's good. You do have a stun though, so I don't know about a slow. It's goof for aiming your stun better at running enemies, but you should be able to read and predict where he goes anyway, therefore hit him.

- Will of the Ancients is another interesting item. A spell vamp to help you sustain in lane, along with bonuses of Ability Power to both you and your allies.

- Banshee's Veil is a good surviability item if the opponent team has some strong caster damage. It provides your with a cool ring around you, protecting you against crowd control abilities, and a Magic Resistance boost. Also gives you some hp and mana.

- Abyssal Scepter is another good choice if the opponents has a fed caster or two. It gives you Magic Penetration, which is great, in addition to Ability Power and Magic Resistance. So yes, this can be a very good item combined with Sorcerer's Shoes and Greater Mark of Magic Penetration for those who DON'T stack Magic Resistance. -20?

Other items
There's always other items that ain't so good to use. Others are awkward, but OK.

- Lich Bane
This is an item I think is useless for brand. You are a combo-freak, you barely use your auto attack against other champions. Of course it has a bit of surviability in it, along with Ability Power, but I think that inventory slot can be used to something else.
This item can be used, but I don't recommend it if you don't use it a lot. It can be hard to "aim" with Brand if you're new to the item.

- Items like Warmog's Armor
Completely useless. I mean, what the hell would you need this for? Sure, buy it if you're 0-20-0. If not, stay away. :)

- AD items like Infinity Edge
Not here. You can play Brand as an AD champion, but this is not what this guide is about. Therefore a no from me.

Playing Brand: Basic Gameplay

As Brand you should always grab the mid lane. You're an AP carry - it's basically what mid was made for. Therefore, try to grab mid.

Going after build #1 here,
Starting out with Doran's Ring on your way to the empty middle lane. Battle, last hit like you should with auto-attack. While doing it, make sure to use Pillar of Flame or another skill to harass your opponent, making them lose hp and distract them from last-hitting. If you see a group of low-hp mobs, don't be afraid to use your Pillar of Flame to secure them all. Do not spam you skills too much. You have mana regen runes for a reason - to keep your mana at a good amount if you manage to control it and not spam them like a pyromaniac.
Remember zoning. If you can get them down to 40% or less hp, stay offensive in the lane, denying them experience as they have to hug the tower for not to die.

Try to pick up a kill or two, as people often tend to underestimate the power of Brand. Try to often active your Blaze on an enemy by using any spell to do it. It is great for harassing them for sure. A good way is to use Pillar of Flame on mobs - they will think that you can't do anything to them now as long as they stay behind creeps on a decent range. Well they are wrong. If they actually think such, and stick close to his creeps, pull Conflagration on one of them spreading the Blaze to the opponent.

When needed, go back to base. If you end up there with an amount over 475 gold, but less to buy your next item, stack up with another Doran's Ring and head back to lane asap. If you even can't afford a Doran's Ring, an Elixir of Brilliance might do aswell. However it has more effect mid/late-game.

You will get Tear of the Goddess asap due to that you need to fill it up for it to be effective. After that, you need Sorcerer's Shoes. If you followed my rune build, you will now get your enemies to zero Magic Resistance except if they stack Magic Resistance early game. Well that's their loss anyway. At this point Blaze is at its best. It will do major harassing if you can keep activating it at your enemy.

After this, we'll go to Rabadon's Deathcap. It's a huge boost of Ability Power and you know you need it. Afterwards we'll jump to Archangel's Staff which should have been filled a bit now. Along with Rabadon's Deathcap it'll rise your Ability Power quite a lot. Afterwards it's pretty much your choice.

I like to go for Void Staff late game, and sometimes I even don't build it if they don't stack up much Magic Resist. But people will usually do that, and it's a really useful item for sure. A 40% Magic Penetration along with your 15% from masteries. Awesome. It also gives you an Ability Power boost aswell.

Now, if you want to build surviability or maximize your damage output is all your choice. I will now further on explain different items that can be swapped/replaced or used.

The last two items is up to you to choose. Please see the items section if you need tips or are in doubt.

Playing Brand: Farming

So there is one combo that is very basic for farming, and it yields as follows:

You wanna use the Pillar of Flame to harass and ablaze the mobs, followed by Conflagration which will spread and do damage to every of them because they're ablaze.
This is great for farming mid-game and out.

Playing Brand: Ganking

So the ganking part is really the combo part here... I suggest you read on to the combos, as that is how you gank. You pull a combo.

Early game: You can one-combo them when they have around 40% of their health without your ulti. With your Pyroclasm, it's 50-60&.

Mid game: If you've farmed well and picked up a decent amount of kills, you can usually one-combo people at 60-70% health with your Pyroclasm

Late game: This really depends on you and who you're comboing. Are you fed? 80-85%. Are you more fed? 95-100%. Do you suck? 40%.

The usual combo is the following (this is for a 1v1 situation):

So basically, you'd like to stun your opponent first. After they're ablaze, use Pillar of Flame for a great damagae output with an extra 25%. Afterwards, quickly pull Ignite ONLY if you see that your opponent might survive with 5-10% hp. This, combined with Blaze, will take them down. Afterwards, use Pyroclasm to finish them off if they didn't die yet.
Note that if they have like minor health left, you can wait for your cooldowns while you run after them instead, to spare your ultimate. Your Pyroclasm's range ain't too bad either, so IF they were to escape while you wait up cooldowns, throw it at them.

Playing Brand: Combos:

Following up there are combos for Brand. This is a new system I have in my new guides, which will help people that are new to Brand with knowing how and why to do those combos; which does the most damage, which one is the one with lowest mana cost but still does some good damage etc. Enjoy.

Here's a little video I just did you you guys. It's just a quick show-off to what your combos can do, and how you do them. Enjoy :)

- Combo: EQW(F)(R)

This is Brand's highest damaging combo here. With using Conflagration and Sear to stun, they are ablaze which will make Pillar of Flame to do a 25% additional damage, which is great. In addition, Pyroclasm's missible speed is much better, making it harded to run away from while it bounces through its targets.

Main combo. Bread and butter.

- Combo: WQE(R)

Another combo with quite some damage, however not as much as the one above due to that the target is not ablaze when you pull your Pillar of Flame. However, Pillar of Flame has a much longer range (and aoe) than Conflagration, making you able to stun at a longer range.

- B-Combo: WR

Damage output: Bad

Mana cost: |6: 190 |18: 310
Level 6: Low | Level 18: Medium

A combo you can use on escapers who tend to dodge your Sear, making you unable to stun. Pyroclasm's range isn't too bad, so you can throe Pillar of Flame at them and shoot your Pyroclasm. Works better if there is several fleeing enemies.
Tip: If possible, wait for Pillar of Flame to deal ablaze the targets before throwing Pyroclasm. Much better missible speed, harder to run apart and dodge it.

Not too good damage due to only two spells.

- B-Combo: EW

Damage output: OK

Mana cost: |6: 150 |18: 190
Level 6: Very Low | Level 18: Low

A good damaging combo with low mana cost. This is what you use to finish off some low-hp enemy in range.

Not too good damage due to only using two skills.

- B-Combo: EQ

Damage output: Bad

Mana cost: |6: 110 |18: 130
Level 6: Very very very very very low | Level 18: Very very very low

A quick stun combo. Can be used for a variety of things, but if it's a 1v1 battle you should pull out your other two skills too.

Also great for stunning a chasing enemy to escape from him.

Bad damage due to only two skills. Lowest mana cost combo.

- B-Combo: WQ

Damage output: OK

Mana cost: |6: 140 |18: 160
Level 6: Very Low | Level 18: Low

This isn't so much used, but if used, it's mainly for a longer range stun.

Playing Brand: Tips&Tricks

Learning to aim your Sear right will grant you significant benefits compared to if you keep missing it. Setting the stun is important.

By leaving your enemies with zero Magic Resistance, your passive, Blaze, will do full damage. 8% of their HP.

Try to keep a Blaze on your lane opponent(s) all the time, as it is great for harassing. Pull a Pillar of Flame whenever you feel like it will hit him for a great harass.

I will add more if I come up with anything. If you have anything, please comment.

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why don't you use cooldown reduction runes?A: I already explained it. Brand doesn't have too high cooldowns, and I think Ability Power will help you more.

Q: Why do you stack Archangel's Staffs?A: Myself I like to stay back and deal that damage. I also use to have a little bit of surviability, but when playing Brand I put damage as first priority.
This is ALL personal opinions. I'm not gonna demand you stack Archangel's. It's up to yourself. If you're in doubt look at the optional items -section.

Q: I don't like Tear of the Goddess.A: Then don't use it. I'm not here to tell you exactly what items or build to use, it's up to you. The cheat sheet is my personal opinion, and the item section is for items that I think can be considered/should not be used.

Q: Stacking Dorans isn't smart.A: Yes, I think it is. If you don't then don't do it. Simple as that. But really, if you come to base with 475 gold and it isn't enough for your next item... It'll help you.

Q: I have a question that isn't in the FAQ.A: Comment, and I'll answer you and eventually add it to here. :)

Patch Changes

Here I will make a list over patches that have changed Brand forwards. I will not apply the ones from the past, as the guide is 100% fully updates towards that.

xth of yth ZThe change(s) that was applied.

Change Log

[28/9/11] - Published guide.[30/9/11] - Fixed a few typos and updated runes / masteries a little.[30/9/11] - Strongly updated the runes section.[1/10/11] - Small update to runes and masteries with optionals.[2/10/11] - Just noticed it's 6 days left for my birthday. Anyway, I updated the ganking section, also added some stuff on several of the chapters/sections. Fixed some minor mistakes. Also made the size of all combos to 32 instead of 64.[3/10/11] - Corrected a major mistake, thanks to the guys in comments. Abyssal Scepter was also added to the optional items section. Few minor mistakes was corrected.[3/10/11] - Added a video to the combo section.[3/10/11] - Build 3 was added. More surviability. This was a strong day for updates. o.O.[9/10/11] - I'm another year older (yesterday :3), and there was a minor update to the Runes section at build #3.[13/10/11] - Announced the end of this guide. I'm sick of most of you people on here, you're so rude. I'm sorry to everyone who is nice out there and such, but really, most people just trollvotes or votes without reading the guide or checking the alternate builds. It just annoys me too much, I'm sorry. Good bye.[14/10/11] - Hi again. I just raged a bit yesterday, sorry about that. My guide went from 84% > 73%, so I kind kind of mad because for that. I'm so sorry. I decided to try to complete the expansion, and I will do so now. It might take some time, but it will eventually be here. :)

Summary

So that was my Brand guide. I love Brand like many others. Other people hate him, but I please ask you not do flame, hate, harass or down-vote this guide just because of that. I put effort in it to help other players play a character they like, not promote a hated character and make this a flamers' home.

If you have any questions, look in the FAQ. If it isn't there, feel free to comment and I'll answer as good as I can on a daily basis.

If there's anything to complain about in the cheat sheet, don't blame me. It's my personal opinions and everyone has different opinions. Look in the damn items section or find your own items.

League of Legends is a team based, real time strategy game set in a mythical world of swords & magic where epic battles decide the fate of mystical nations. Game players take on the role of a Summoner who conjures and controls champions to fight for them at the Institute of War. During game play champions gain experience and items to enhance their skills and abilities. How players develop and play their champions can be the difference between a crushing defeat or a glorious victory!